Old and new
by planet p
Summary: Really AU, Miss Parker and the Retrieval Team visit Nebraska. Broots/OC


**Old and new** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _the Pretender _or any of its characters.

* * *

_2009_

"Smiley Mart!" Miss Parker cried, in a mixture between pain, disgust and incredulousness. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Misery, Nebraska, population 856, host to the soon-to-be-short-lived supermarket chain, Smiley Mart – a _real_ highlight on the list of dumps Jarod had dragged them (without actually physically _dragging_ them) to, Miss Parker wagered with herself, and thought she might even write that one down in her report. If not Raines, it'd give Angelo a laugh, in a quiet, undisclosed corner of his mashed up mind.

Miss Parker fixed a neutral expression to her face and followed Sydney across the parking lot toward the automatic doors and the Smiley Mart entrance. It was just _so_ Sydney to suddenly need batteries for his absolutely-not-digital notetaker, when everyone else carried a charger and mobile car charger and had never even heard of cassette tapes, nor AA or AAA cell batteries, and would probably think it was some type of classification of filtering to do with beer or spirits, or else a type of foreign film classification.

Painfully, Miss Parker stepped into the supermarket after Sydney, and recalled her appointment with Cox – I know what an AA (penlight) battery is AKA the thing I shove in people's ears eats them – who she'd been sent to, in the absence of Brown, to evaluate her diazepam prescription.

Inside the supermarket, Miss Parker felt as though she'd stepped into someone's refrigerator, and frowned at the old man standing in the aisle a short distance from Sydney. _His_ doctor had probably told him to get out of the heat, and to find a store or public venue where he could do this and not be dragged off the premises, all manner of curses flying after him, for loitering for hours on end.

By the look on Sydney's face, a considerable frown, Miss Parker thought that if she didn't intervene, and point out the location of the batteries, Sydney would be storming/strolling calmly off to have a chat with the Store Manager, and she'd be left standing there with no support except for the redness creeping into her face along with the mounting embarrassment.

Broots, certainly, had swiftly made himself scarce (probably to be found in the Confectionary aisle), and Lyle was no support at all, in her opinion, and was consulting his cell phone as though confused about the lack of coverage, though, if he'd bothered to take note, Miss Parker thought, he'd have taken note of the fact that they were currently standing in a freaking supermarket in the middle of Hicksville, NB.

"Sydney, they're right there," Lyle said, pointing to the section of shelf where the batteries Sydney was looking for were kept. "Don't take any notice of the Marked Down price tag, that was for last week."

Sydney glanced at the spot where Lyle had pointed, and narrowed his eyes at the _single _brand of batteries, ridiculously marked up, even when they were marked down.

"It's the country," Lyle smiled, "the middle of nowhere, Sydney. Did you expect any different?"

"Eh, 'the middle of nowhere,' is that right, then?" the old, somewhat overweight man Miss Parker had seen earlier interrupted.

Lyle turned a glance on the old man. "Where did the trees go?" he asked.

The old man frowned, and shook his head. "Pesky things were removed. Years ago now. What a thing to ask, of all things, boy."

Lyle frowned. "Yeah, pesky. But this is nice."

The old man nodded. "It makes a change," he said.

"A good change, or a bad change, do you think?"

The old man made a face. "Eh, what's all these questions? How should I know, boy?"

Lyle shook his head. "Never mind," he replied.

Miss Parker turned to look at her brother, quizzical and incredulous. She didn't see what trees had to do with Jarod's whereabouts, unless Jarod was posing as a tree expert or the likes.

"Marvin, do you know of anyone called Jarod who might have come through town a few days back, even stayed for a while?" Lyle asked.

Miss Parker raised her eyebrows. He was calling the old man by his first name, now!

The old man scrunched up his eyes in thought. "You should ask S-"

"Marvin, Sunny doesn't live here anymore," Lyle told him.

Marvin's chin shot up sharply, his small, watery, piggy blue eyes bright for a moment, and met Lyle's gaze. The brightness dimmed. "Oh, I suppose you're right then, boy."

Lyle reached out a hand for the old man's arm. "Maybe she's happier there, where she's gone, hmm?"

"Is she?" Marvin asked, as though he thought Lyle might know the answer.

Lyle shook his head. "I don't know, Marvin."

Marvin frowned heavily. "What do you mean?" he asked suddenly, raising his voice, and stepping sharply back from Lyle, who'd removed his hand from the older man's arm. "Just what do you mean to say by that, boy?"

"I mean, I don't know," Lyle replied calmly.

"NO!" Marvin shouted. "You do know! You do know! I think you do know! But you won't tell me! You don't want to tell me!"

"Marvin," Lyle said, still in that maddeningly calm voice, "lower your voice."

Marvin chuckled. "Why should I, boy? What would you do, hmm? What would you do?" he continued in a raised voice.

Lyle frowned. "No, you're right, you know nothing of Jarod," he concluded. "Good day, Marvin," he added, and turned about and strode away, Miss Parker and Sydney staring after him, Miss Parker in confusion, and Sydney in worry.

Marvin shook his head rigorously. "Disturbed, if you ask me, that boy," he muttered, for the benefit of Miss Parker and Sydney, Miss Parker suspected. "Yes, siree." He looked at Sydney suddenly. "Your boy, Jarod," he said. "He's not here, if he ever was." Then he turned and walked off in the opposite direction that Lyle had walked.

* * *

Miss Parker rounded the corner to the Confectionary aisle, and spotted Broots at one end, and Lyle and Marvin at the other.

Either it was that Lyle had followed Marvin, or that Marvin had followed Lyle, though, by the look on Broots' face, and Marvin's tone, Miss Parker figured strongly that it had been Marvin who'd been the one doing the following.

"What if I do? But what if I do? What if I do know something about this Jarod?" Marvin asked.

Lyle made a face. "You don't," he said simply.

"But what if I- What if I did? What if… if I could… if I knew someone who did?" Marvin pressed.

"Do they know each other?" Broots asked quietly, shopping basket filled with various snack foods and sweet items in hand.

Miss Parker didn't answer, but shot Broots a brief perturbed glance.

"I knew, even when they said otherwise, those big, important FBI folk in their shiny cars, that you'd never have hurt Jimmy," Marvin was saying. "I know what he did. I think- I think I know now what he did to you."

"Jimmy didn't do anything to me," Lyle growled uncomfortably.

Marvin shook his head. "Your father, boy."

Lyle laughed, but his eyes turned hard. "Shut up!" he told Marvin coldly. "Shut up!"

"Tell me," Marvin said. "Tell me about Sunny."

"I won't tell you anything," Lyle told him plainly, angrily.

"I could tell people you wouldn't like me telling," Marvin said, almost happily. Stupidly, Miss Parker thought.

"What don't you get about 'I don't know,' Marvin?" Lyle shouted suddenly. "What are you finding difficultly with comprehending?"

Marvin grimaced. "A Hell of a temper you've got there, boy," he commented.

Lyle grinned. "Oh, you don't want to know," he said, shaking his head.

Marvin shrugged. "Still, if it's all the same, I think you do know. And I think you know about that Jarod too," he said, "think you know where he is."

"My parents loved me," Lyle told him simply. "I don't know what you're talking about. I think you must have me confused with someone else. Old age does that, I hear." With a final glare, he turned and walked away and out of sight, perhaps in the direction of the exit.

"Damn well," Marvin muttered to himself, as though in finish to his earlier comment, and hobbled away also.

* * *

Miss Parker and Broots left the Confectionary aisle and found Sydney chatting happily with a young woman – Callie – serving the Express cash register.

Broots lined up behind Sydney with his basket, and Miss Parker decided to wait with Broots. Let Sydney be the first to the car, let Sydney to be the first to Lyle.

* * *

"Look, Bobby- No, look!"

Miss Parker turned at the sound of her brother's laugh, and Marvin's voice, drawing nearer, and saw that the old man was hobbling toward where they stood by their parked car, Broots tapping frantically on the keys on his laptop keyboard.

"I apologise," Marvin said, out of breath, but finally standing within a metre of the car and Lyle.

"You don't apologise!" Lyle told him, almost childishly.

"I do!" Marvin disagreed. "I do… now. I'm- I'm older now. When you get to my age, you realise there's no purpose served by holding foolish grudges, no grand glory, no winner."

Lyle shook his head. No matter what Marvin said, he knew otherwise.

"Bobby," Marvin huffed, "Bobby, please! Don't be difficult. Just this once. Just this once, listen to what I have to say."

Lyle laughed, and Miss Parker shot him an incredulous glance, which he ignored, gaze fixed on the old man.

"I have no interest in informing the FBI, or anyone else for that matter, Bobby. I know you didn't kill Jimmy."

Lyle grinned. "You know!"

"I know," Marvin countered firmly.

"You're wrong!" Lyle told him, satisfied.

Marvin frowned. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but you're wrong."

Lyle shook his head, smiling to himself.

Marvin put a hand to his head. "I think, I _wanted_ to believe you. I wanted to believe that it'd been you, but it wasn't. It never was, Bobby. I know, you knew it too. You knew that it hadn't been you, then. But you were so convincing. I wasn't fussed. So I let you lie. I said nothing.

"But, Bobby, what if it wasn't true. What if it was only a lie? A lie even you believed over time? What if, what really happened, was worse than the lie? What if it made no sense, or was pointless? What if it was stupid, and dumb, and you just _didn't_ want it to be true? So you lied?

"What then, Bobby?"

Lyle laughed. "My name isn't Bobby," he said.

"Think about it, Bobby, for God's sake!" Marvin told him. "You're not a stupid boy! Think about it!"

"Like I said earlier, my name isn't Bobby," Lyle replied.

"I don't care what you said earlier, and I don't care what you think, and I don't care what your name is, I just want you to understand that you're not your father, Bobby, you're not Lyle; you never were.

"Yes, I was wrong. But, Bobby, there's something wrong with you too, and I'm sorry; I'm so sorry."

"Back!" Lyle shouted. "Go back inside before you melt, old man."

Marvin sighed. "Yes, I think I will, Bobby. I think I will."

"My name isn't Bobby," Lyle called after him as he walked away.

* * *

"Ah, Miss Parker!" Broots chimed, signalling that his frantic typing had come up with something, at last. A lead on Jarod.

Sydney closed the journal he'd been reading, and looked up in interest, but Miss Parker had no interest in sharing; only in driving.

* * *

"Is that Sunny's number?" Broots asked, voice lowered, over the sound of Sydney's breathing, and turned over to see Lyle tuck the slip of paper he'd scribbled something on, into an envelope.

Lyle didn't reply.

"Marvin? Marvin was your Math teacher, wasn't he? Marvin and Sunny," Broots said softly, squinting through the lamp's dim light. He grinned. "He's right, you know," he said, after a moment. "I mean, how do you know?"

"I know," Lyle growled in a low voice, without looking at him.

Broots frowned, though, had he been sitting, he'd have favoured a shrug.

"Go to sleep," Lyle told him, in that same low growl, with a tinge of annoyance.

"I could look up his address," Broots suggested, struggling into a sitting position.

"I know the address," Lyle growled stiffly.

Broots shrugged one shoulder. "What did he mean about your father? Did he mean about the sh-"

"Shut up!"

"But, I mean-" Broots protested.

"I mean, 'Shut up'!" Lyle responded in a growl.

"You're not even-"

"And I'm not going to start!"

"But why can't you just-"

"Shut up!"

Broots frowned, put out.

"You're thirsty," Lyle told him, a short while later. "You can't sleep when you're thirsty."

Broots snorted incredulously.

Lyle rolled his eyes. "I guess," he grumbled, "that's what he meant. So what?"

"I always just hope-" Broots began.

Lyle sighed. "She's an intelligent young woman, Broots."

"I think sometimes she would have preferred to have stayed with her mother," Broots mumbled.

"It's not about who she stayed with, Broots, it's about: Is she well? Is she doing okay? Is she relatively happy?" Lyle shook his head. "Sometimes, things happen. And you've got to work with them, not against them, and not for them, but you can't put them out of the picture altogether. They mean something. Some people will tell you that everything means something. Maybe it does."

Broots slipped his legs off the mattress and stood up. "I'm going to get myself a glass of water," he explained. "Do you want me to get you one too?"

Lyle shook his head. "No."

Broots frowned.

Lyle sighed. "Broots, it's a nice thought, a nice fantasy – a relief, were it true – but that's all it is – a fantasy. I know what I did and didn't do."

"I suppose so," Broots mumbled.

"I'm sorry; it was stupid. I should have told him earlier."

Broots shook his head. "She was gone. She was already gone. I know he feels badly for it, now, and I know you don't blame him for it, but I know that no matter what, she'd still have been gone; she'd never have come back. Sometimes, people just don't come back."

Lyle made a face, and stared at the mattress he was sitting on.

"Life is sucky," Broots said.

Lyle smiled. "Not always."

"No. Not always," Broots agreed.

* * *

"Bobby would have just slapped you for saying that," Broots told Lyle quietly, returning with a glass of water to set down at his bedside, and wondered for a moment if he should have brought one for Sydney too.

Lyle smiled to the ceiling.

"Do you think he's okay, though?"

"I hope so," Lyle replied quietly.

Broots switched out the lamp light. "But that's okay, though; I guess I would too." He sighed. "You don't- I mean, but, you don't know where Jarod is, do you? Right now, I mean? You don't know where he is right now?"

"No," Lyle replied. After a moment, he added, "I'm as in the dark as you are."

Broots grinned to himself, and wondered exactly where Jarod was, and hoped he was with his family, though he didn't really believe it.

When he'd gone for his glass of water, he'd rung Debbie on his cell phone to wish her goodnight, and had asked her to wish her friend goodnight, as well. Debbie's friend was a Goth, so he'd said that he'd hoped that she _was_ off to sleep, and that she wasn't off to snack on any unsuspecting human munchies, which had made his daughter laugh.

He supposed he'd have to tell Debbie soon, though he wasn't sure how she'd react, or whether she'd be pleased or feel betrayed and used or angry. In a way, he'd understand any of those emotions, or all of them. He'd never particularly condoned Dolphy, after all, and now they were, sort of, he supposed, together.

It was odd, though, in hindsight. He'd always kind of liked Miss Parker. She was an attractive woman, if not a tad commanding and bitey.

He supposed, that if Lyle hadn't agreed with his daughter, Adolpha, and he, he would have said so by now, but he was almost more afraid of Miss Parker's opinion than of his daughter's. He knew that Debbie wanted the best for him, after all, yet Miss Parker's intentions were somewhat less clear.

Though, in the same instance, he wasn't sure how much Miss Parker knew, whether she knew that his daughter's best friend was her niece, or whether she remained unknowing to the fact. It wasn't, after all, his place, if she did not know, to inform her, though he almost hoped that Angelo might, though he was also afraid of what she might do to him.

They were family now, or, depending on Miss Parker's beliefs, they would be, as soon as the baby was born, but if Miss Parker's family history was anything to go on, he was less than encouraged. All that he really had to go on, then, was that Lyle might try to stop his sister from killing him in the interest of his daughter and his grandchild.

He knew enough about Lyle to know that if he did the wrong thing by his daughter that he would not get off lightly, but he also knew that Lyle would probably not kill him given that his daughter and he were connected because of the anomaly Lyle's daughter carried in her genetics.

He did not know, either, what Debbie would say about the arrival of a sibling at such a late stage in his life, and with her already being well of the way into her twenties, least of all his own feelings on the arrival of a new baby, nor on the baby's inheritance of its mother's anomaly.

He didn't think he could bear to grow close to a child, just to have it snatched away, and he didn't ever want Dolphy to have to go through that, nor Debbie.

"You can't ever let them take it away," he said into the blackness of the room, and wondered, when Lyle didn't reply, if he was sleeping, or merely counting on Broots' thinking that he was.

He would, he realised, he would stop them, even if he had to do something he'd hate, something he'd regret for the rest of his life. He'd never let them take any of his children, and he'd never let them take Dolphy.

* * *

_Intentionally confusing, I suppose, as to explain it all within the story would be even mo__re confusing, as it is very AU._

_In short, for instance, with Lyle and Broots in the motel, they are talking about Brigitte and Cox (Brigitte being the woman that died, Cox being the one who feels bad for not saving her). And before that, __they were talking about Debbie._

_The differences in this story that make it AU are: Lyle is an Empath, Broots and Brigitte were in a relationship, Cox is a healer. Misery is the name I gave to Bobby's town, I don't remember its real name. In my stories, it's a small farming town of about 800 people__. I hope that helps._

_As always, thanks for reading. =)_

_

* * *

_

_P.S.: I live in Australia; I don't know any of the American supermarkets, though I've heard of Wal-Mart, and I suppose Safeway is probably American, too. I'm not sure about Coles, though I'd not be surprised to find it wasn't Australian owned, less and less is nowadays. Aldi is German, I think, though I'm not sure if they've established a hold in America. Franklins was Japanese, I think, but they've gone out of business in Australia years ago now, except maybe in Sydney? Also, I've heard mention of something called Whole Foods from a novel, once. I don't know if any of these stores are supermarkets, or department stores like Myer, K-mart and Big W, or something like The Reject Shop, The Warehouse (now Sam's Warehouse), or Go-Lo, though I suppose that Whole Foods might be something like a green grocer or grocery store, only a chain thing._

_In the way of chain restaurants, I do know of McDonald's, KFC, and Hungry Jacks (Burger King in America), and possibly Nando's (Is that American, too?). Oh, Pizza Hut might have been New Zealand, not sure. G, Domino's is definitely American, it's on the movies!_

_Sorry, I've stopped now._


End file.
